Reality TV as defined by Hill

How does Hill define reality TV? Describe his definitions in the context of a contemporary Reality TV show.

His definitions, or, should we choose to stick to factual reality while discussing “reality television,” her definitions – A. stands for Anette - from 2005 are summarized in the conclusion of her chapter dealing with the “Reality Genre” : “a disparate group of programmes that [are united by] the capacity to let viewers see for themselves. This unique function of factual television has become a key attraction for audiences of reality TV.”(Hill, 2005, p. 55). She names several aspects of the type of programming that made up the different subgenres of Reality TV by 2005, such as the “seeing it happen” style coverage, “ordinary people” performing, etc., and as a result, the creation of new hybrid genres from “distinctive and historically based” TV genres “such as lifestyle or documentary”, with an expectation from the audience of the program being “true to life”.

In her 2014 book, “reality tv: KEY IDEAS IN MEDIA AND CULTURAL STUDIES” Hill suggests the genre being “a phenomenon,” (p.13). She states: “we can say reality TV is a phenomenon in the sense that it is part of a social and media matrix” but also: “at this moment in time reality television is also a fading phenomenon. The elements that have made it part of a cultural zeitgeist are now a little tired and repetitive.” (p.16)

Reality TV seems to cater for voyeurism shared by many of us, the morbid curiosity that seems to be more acceptable today than even a few years ago. Privacy is relinquished more easily by people if they hope to gain popularity by doing so. (Schuffeldt-Esch, 2012, pp. 48-53)

As we have often heard the maxim “if it is too good to be true, then it isn’t” this seems to be the case for reality TV too: even viewers without much formal education hold suspicions about the “true to life”-ness of programs such as BBC’s popular Dine with me!. According to personal communication from an “insider” who shall remain unnamed, the vast mass of footage taken on set is heavily edited to only a few minutes of broadcast to create dramatic effect according to prepared scripts. Already at the stage of casting (that much for “ordinary people”), certain existing characteristics of the participants are handpicked to be emphasized by systematic, targeted editing. This is done for example focusing on behaviours embellishing a characteristic (focus on “Ouch, I burned the fish again!” type utterances from an otherwise not particularly disorganised participant), and the purposefully created confrontation with participants who are expected by the creators to produce the most intense reaction to each other’s personality.

 This is not surprising, considering that in order to entertain the wider public, whose attention span is now reported to be below that of the proverbial goldfish: “The average human attention span in 2000 was 12 seconds, but by 2013 it was only 8 seconds (1 second shorter than a goldfish!).”(Microsoft, 2015), programs need to catch the attention of the viewer with dramatic action very frequently if they want to attract high ratings.

Hill, A. (2005). Reality TV: audiences and popular factual television). New York, N.Y: Routledge.

Hill, A. (2014). REALITY TV Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

n.a. (2015). How does digital affect Canadian attention spans? Retrieved 30/10/2015,  from http://advertising.microsoft.com/en/cl/31966/how-does-digital-affect-canadian-attention-spans

Schuffeldt-Esch, M. (2012). Privacy: What Has Reality TV Got To Hide? In Wyatt, W. N. & Bunton, K. K.  (Eds.), The Ethics of Reality TV (pp. 41-58). New York, N.Y.: Continuum International Publishing Group.